Monday, 31 August 2015

We
are on our way back to County Antrim and you can see in the second image that Ailsa Craig Island is just disappearing behind us in the mist. Below is one of the group being shown the navigational aids. We certainy needed them today due to the heavy mist through the day although it lifted a bit as we sailed past the coast of Scotland on our return journey.

The Tiveragh
Fairy Hill (below)

Legend and lore has it that this very broad sided hill with steep
sides overlooking the small village of Cushendall in Northern Ireland is the
gateway to Tir na nOg. A place very well known locally to be haunted by faeries,
leprechauns, elves, and pixies … this giant hill is a natural fortress all in
its own and easily seen to be claimed as a stronghold by the fae. Fairy tales
mention many stories about it rising up on pillars during the twilight evening
with glimmering meriment of faeries frolicking and dining. Many believe that the
wee folk live in this hill that is accessed by a nearby cave. As the warning
goes, if ye are mortal, regardless of how appeasing the faerie music may sound,
if you wander within, you’ll never be seen again on this plane of existence.
Time holds a whole different rhythm in Faerieworlds.

The skipper's wife told me that it was traditional for the children to roll their Easter eggs down this hill but only during daylight hours!

We are nearly back to County Antrim and I do hope none of you were sea sick. Tomorrow finishes this series when I end as I started showing you Gannets but this time I photographed them on our journey back.

Sunday, 30 August 2015

This is my attempt this week at Scavenger Hunt Sunday and
all the photographs were taken when I visited the National Trust property
at Mount Stewart House and Gardens, outside Newtownards, County Down, Northern
Ireland.

1.What
I’m doing today.

Lunching at Mount Stewart outside at the restaurant when a Great Tit joined me.

2.Inside

Hallway with Dining room off to right at Mount Stewart.I will be showing you more photographs and videos of the recent and beautifully renovated inside of this house in later posts.

3.Candid

Three brothers watching the Goldfish in the pond in the gardens at Mount Stewart.

4.Yum

I resisted these tasty delights but had the gorgeous Carrot & Coriander soup.

5. Natural Light

Water Lilies from one of the ponds in the formal garden at Mount Stewart.

Thanks for eveyone who have followed my posts for the past 2 weeks when we visited Ailsa Craig.I have just two more posts to show you as I head back to Country Antrim again.NB A Shag is a different bird to a Cormorant. Some bloggers think it is the same.

Saturday, 29 August 2015

Our time is nearly up on the island of Ailsa Craig and
as I walked round a small part of it, I
found a lot of Lesser Black backed gulls with their chicks. You could barely see the chicks even though
they were as large as the adults but blended

in well to the rock colours as you can see from this first 2 shots below.

The rocks had this amazing patterns of lichen on them
and when I looked at the Lighthouse, I could see that the mist was soon going
to surround Ailsa completely again. We were
fortunate when arriving at Ailsa that the mist had lifted for us to see the bird
sanctuary.

An old generator

Time to go and we had to be careful walking down the
jetty due to half of it being missing and the other half covered in slippery green
seaweed.

Thursday, 27 August 2015

There
were many ‘fences’ in the form of stone walls on Ailsa Craig Island so I hope you enjoy seeing what I found on our short time on the island today.

Lighthouse

The
Lighthouse was built between 1883 and 1886 by Thomas Stevenson; it is owned by
the Northern Lighthouse Board.

The
lighthouse was automated in 1990 and converted to solar electric power in 2001;
the island has been uninhabited since automation in 1990. Ailsa Craig
and its lighthouse feature extensively in Peter Hill's book Stargazing:

Memoirs
of a Young Lighthouse Keeper.

The gas works are still a prominent
feature on the island and the cable powered tramway was partly built to haul
wagons full of coal up to it from the North Port. Two gasometers held the coal
gas that powered both the compressed air pump and the lighthouse light, however
in 1911 the light was converted to incandescent lighting which was powered by
electricity.The gas works became redundant at this time. Lawson
records that oil was used to produce the gas for the lighthouse light.

Curling
stones

From
the mid-nineteenth century the island has been quarried for its rare type of
micro-granite with riebeckite (known as "Ailsite"), which is used to
make stones for the sport of curling. As of 2004, 60–70 per cent of all curling
stones in use were made from granite from the island and is one of only two
sources for all stones in the sport, the other being the Trefor Granite Quarry in
Wales.

Ailsa Craig produced two types of granite for curling, Blue Hone and Ailsa Craig Common Green. Blue Hone has very low water absorption, which prevents the action of repeatedly freezing water from eroding the stone. Ailsa Craig Common Green is a lesser quality granite than Blue Hone. In the past, most curling stones were made from Blue Hone but the quarry is restricted by environmental conditions that exclude blasting.

Kays of Scotland has been making curling stones since 1851 and has the exclusive rights to the Ailsa Craig granite, granted by the Marquess of Ailsa. The last "harvest" of Ailsa Craig granite by Kays took place in 2013, after a hiatus of 11 years; 2,000 tons were harvested, sufficient to fill anticipated orders until at least 2020!

We
had our lunch sitting outside the Lighthouse.
This was one of the party trying to find a ‘loo’ spot. When I went looking within the lighthouse
building complex, I was amazed to find rooms still with beds and bedding, furniture and
a loo!

It was if everyone had left in a great
hurry!

We
only had about 1 1/2 hours on the island and after lunch I walked to the right
hand side where there were gulls with their young which I will show you
tomorrow.

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About Me

I have retired from a medical background, as well as teaching a 3 year City and Guilds; and also running a Bed and Breakfast. I have taken up bird watching later in life however I became very enthusiastic from the beginning and was greatly encouraged by other bird watchers. For the past 9 years I have led a bird group in my town and have become a guest speaker on cruise ships talking about Birds around the world. I have travelled quite a bit, in particular to Australia where one of my daughters lives. I have now as many birding friends there as at home in Northern Ireland. I love Nature and being able to share that with others of like mind. I also like photography and do my best to photograph birds although I seem to be also very eclectic in what I photograph and blog these days.
I live in Northern Ireland which is part of the UK and it is a beautiful place to live however I love travelling to see places and birds that I have never seen before.